Seeburg Appraisal
By Douglas K. Rhodes
Greetings:
The Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, B.C. has been donated a Seeburg coin-op player piano. I have been asked to appraise it, as I specialize in antique and player piano restorations. A tax receipt for a charitable donation will be issued to the donor. The Federal government has been breathing heavily down the necks of people who issue such tax receipts, wanting to ensure that appraised values are not grossly inflated, cheating the government of its hard-earned tax dollars. Therefore, my appraisal has to be accurate and defensible. Trouble is, though there are the typical numbers of player pianos in town, Seeburgs are quite rare and I do not have a feel for the probable value of this one on the collectors market. Can any of you out there help me?
The official description follows:
J.P. Seeburg Electric Upright Grand piano, serial #11037; letter "G" stamped in ink on plate below serial number. 88-note standard upright piano with factory-installed 65-note coin-operated (dime) pneumatic player action. Metal sticker attached to case: City of Seattle amusement license exp. Nov. 30, 1979.
Quarter-sawn oak veneer case (no bench); three stained glass case panels across music board, crack in one clear glass piece; two clear glass (not original) panels across bottom board. Clear plastic cover (not original) over keys. Case finish and veneer are in fair to poor condition, with cigarette burns, scuffed and chipped veneer, etc. The case gives every appearance of having been displayed in a public place, perhaps a bar, as indicated also by the amusement license mentioned above. Black keytops not original; white keytops replaced with celluloid 30 -40(?) years ago; case is slightly twisted. Piano action in generally poor condition, hammers (Ronsen?) and bridle straps replaced 20 - 30 years ago; action centres sluggish and hammer alignment poor; tuning pins fair; soundboard good.
All pneumatics, including exhausters, control pneumatics and strikers have been competently rebuilt 20 - 30 years ago; some modifications have been made to electrical parts; coin-op mechanism exists, but does not function - playing is initiated by a non-original switch, player does not stop between tunes on multi-tune roll as it would if coin-operated. Roll is standard width - one roll included with machine. Linkage between drive wheels and take-up spool shaft is loose - paper moves erratically across tracker. Otherwise, the pneumatic system appears to function reasonably well, though the piano action is so poor that accurate assessment of the pneumatic action is difficult.
What's it worth?
Doug Rhodes
R.P.T. - The Piano Technicians Guild
E-mail: wo631@freenet.victoria.bc.ca
|
(Message sent Sat 13 Jan 1996, 21:34:25 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
|
|
Mechanical
Music Digest™ Archives
